Giant thymolipoma

Abstract

Thymolipoma is a rare benign pathological tumor of the anterior mediastinum and accounts for about 2–9 % of thymus tumors. Tumor is usually represented as soft tissue consisting of adipose and thymic tissues. Because of the asymptomatic presentation, patients are often diagnosed with a large tumor. Gigantism of the tumor due to long-term and progressive compression of adjacent organs and anatomical structures of this region can lead to dysfunction, and in some cases, to a complete block of their activity, which is fraught with a fatal outcome. Preoperative diagnosis is always a difficult task due to the lower sensitivity of CT scans and biopsies. The main method of treatment is radical surgical excision. The article presents a clinical case of a 51-year-old patient with a giant tumor of the left hemithorax with a long-term asymptomatic presentation, who was diagnosed with thymolipoma after surgical excision and final histopathological examination.

Keywords

• thymolipoma
• mediastinum neoplasm
• lipoma of the thymus
• mediastinal lipoma
• surgical treatment